You Told Us is a regular feature where we highlight comments from users in the communities DNAinfo covers.
MEATPACKING DISTRICT — After news broke that longtime Meatpacking biker bar Hogs and Heifers is closing for good next month, readers flooded social media with hashtags pleading "Save NYC" and treatises on the naturally changing nature of a dynamic city.
Some said they've given up on Manhattan as a whole.
“I would say in the case of Manhattan it's already lost rather than losing — it's really a dull luxury mall at this point,” wrote one Facebook user. “In fact, not only are the interesting shops mostly gone, but the interesting people as well who aren't millionaires. The only unique things that are left are the museums, which is quite the irony.”
Another Facebook user — and self-described New York City native — recalled a time when “being in Manhattan was an adventure,” but said it’s become “a sterile annoyance.”
“Was fun growing up here in the ‘80s though!” he wrote.
While others called the opening of Hogs & Heifers' in 1992 “the start of the end of the neighborhood.”
“When that strip was cool, that place was where you’d go to find the bridge and tunnel crowd looking for a simulacrum of ‘gritty NYC,’” another person posted on Facebook. “Oh, and cops. No great loss here.”
And another argued that change is “the lifeblood of this city.”
"The city doesn't belong to you, or to anyone, it grows, changes, adapts; it always has and it always will," the Facebook user wrote.
On Neighborhood Square, locals who had never even been inside the bar said they'd still miss its presence in the neighborhood.
"While I was never inside, I appreciated its presence in the neighborhood, particularly the amazing motorcycles lined up at the curb," said one reader. "That landlord greed is slow[ly] eroding the quality and texture of the Meatpacking District is truly a lesson in urban decay."
What do you think? Let us know by tweeting at @danielleiat or @DNAinfo, or join the conversation on Facebook or Neighborhood Square.
